Hi, Asher,
In this note, I will underline "code phrases", terms that we intend to have some specific (even if not readily quantified) meaning in the context of interest to us.
Most commonly, members who post pictures here have an aesthetic intent to their work (perhaps in combination with some "informative" intent).
In pursuit of that, they may attend to composition, and timing, and lighting, and exposure, and then in postprocessing deal with cropping, and with color balance, and tonal scale mapping, perhaps in a very sophisticated way, possibly involving layer operations and other such tools.
And other members may offer suggestions as to how that work might be "improved" (understandably based on the individual commenter's own "preferences").
Now, as our members do this, are they invariably seeking to create "fine art"? And, while we of course recognize that the binary property of
fine-art-ness cannot be quantified or even precisely characterized, are there recognizable qualitative properties by which the knowledgeable ones among us can say, in a broad way, "ah, yes, he has indeed created a piece of
fine art there" or, in the alternative, "that is a beautiful photograph, and very skillfullydone, but it is not
fine art?
(And in this regard, recall that it has been asserted here that the "quality" of the result is not what determines its fine-art-ness, in the same way that a really bad "knock-knock" joke may still be a bona fide "knock-knock".)
Or sometimes do our members, earnestly seeking to produce a really top-notch photograph, nevertheless not at all consciously seek to make a piece of
fine art, but just a really top-notch photograph.
And how might what they do
not trying to make a piece of
fine art differ from what they might do in
trying to make a piece of
fine art? Is it the same way that a runner seeking to qualify for a spot on the Olympic team differs in the intensity of his work from a runner just preparing to run in the local Fourth of July relays?
I have the horrifying feeling from what I read here that the difference may be that if the real objective of the photographer is to make an image that will be purchased by a "fine art" gallery, he will be seeking to make a piece of
fine art (and of course, presumably, a really excellent piece of
fine art), whereas if his aspiration is to sell the image to a wedding client, he "just" seeks to make a photograph (and of course, hopefully a really excellent photograph).
Best regards,
Doug